The Windsor Framework
The Windsor Framework was announced by the European Commission and the UK Government on 27 February 2023.
It comprised a series of declarations either adopted at the time or proposed for adoption as well as legal texts proposed for subsequent adoption either jointly in the EU-UK Joint Committee or unilaterally by the EU.
The purpose of the documents, according to the adopted by the European Commission and the UK Goverment, is to provide 'practical and sustainable measures that the Government of the United Kingdom and the European Commission consider necessary to address, in a definitive way, unforeseen circumstances or deficiencies that have emerged since the start of the Protocol'. As such the Windsor Framework was designed to provide a 'new way forward' for the implementation of the Protocol based on 'new data sharing agreements, arrangements on customs, agri-food, medicines, VAT and excise, State aid / subsidy control, as well as specific instruments designed to ensure that the voices of the people of Northern Ireland are better heard on specific issues particularly relevant to the communities there'.
The project webpages have been updated (e.g. Institutional Framework for Managing the Protocol) have been updated and new pages added (e.g. on the Stormont Brakes and stakeholder engagement) to reflect the agreement on the Windsor Framework. For discussions of the Windsor Framework, see the dedicated section under Protocol Analysis. And for how voters in Northern Ireland view the Windsor Framework, see the findings of the 'extra' Testing the Temperature poll (March 2023) commissioned for this project as well as the latest regular Testing the Temperature polls .
The full set of Windsor Framework documents comprises:
- * (27 February 2023)
- (adopted 23 March 2023)
- Two Joint Committee Recommendations
- (made 23 March 2023)
- (made 23 March 2023)
- Five Joint Declarations by the European Commission and the UK Government (made 23 March 2023)
- Five Unilateral Declarations by the UK Government (made 23 March 2023)
- Four Unilateral Declarations by the European Commission that '' of the first four of the above Unilateral Declarations by the UK Government (made 23 March 2023)
- Three pieces of new secondary EU legislation (proposed 27 February 2023)
- ( 14 June 2023)
- ( 14 June 2023)
- (14 June 2023)
- Two pieces of EU delegated legislation
- ( 27 February 2023)
( 24 March 2023)
- Two Commission Position Papers (27 February 2023)
- (27 February 2023)
- Amended of the Joint Consultative Working Group (March 2023)
Accompanying these documents:
- the European Commission issued
- a
- a Factsheet
- a memo
- a from Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen
- the UK Government issued:
- a
- a (CP 806) on the Windsor Framework
- a paper
- a series of sector-specific
The UK shortly afterwards proposed and an for a second 'Stormont Brake'.
* While the texts published on the Windsor Framework website of the European Commission and the are identical in content, the UK Government of the Political Declaration omits 'Windsor' from the title.